Dawn Chorus Walk

Pam Dicer with a flock of early birds listening to the dawn chorus

Bog, Beach, Bluff Explorations Were a Blast!

Last week we went out on three explorations in a row, to see various sides of Bowen: the forest, the estuary, and the open bluffs. We normally go every Friday afternoon, but decided to do an intensive series during Spring Break, so that within a very short time we could experience both the diversity and interconnections of our local landscape. So we started off with Fairy Fen.

Fairy Fen

Standing at the edge of the fen, trying not to trample the plants.

Just outside the fen, the springy ground gives way suddenly to very deep little holes.

Formerly called Mystery Fen, this developing bog was once a lake, but over millenia has been filling in with sphagnum moss, its great depth (over 21 feet) providing ample substrate for a great number of interesting plants, including Labrador Tea, which we plenty of. This plant-growth in turn helps stabilize the surface of the lake, creating a fen, the surface of which is springy, due to the great amount of water, held in the sphagnum, beneath. On the outermost edges of what was once the lake, trees have grown, creating an open-floored forest of mostly hemlock, which gives way to infrequent mud-holes and open water-holes, which the younger members of our group happily pushed sticks into, to measure the depth of. A variety of interesting fungi were found, as well as ground pine (club moss), the remnants of a long-ago landslide, and some interesting bedrock formations.

Measuring mud holes. This one was about 50cm deep.

Lovely purplish fungus.

Hmm... interesting!

Some of the kids had to wait for the adults as we slowly picked our way down the hillside.

Hemlock forest growing outside the fen, with mud-holes clearly evident!

Hiking around the fen.

Will exploring under rocks with some of the kids.

Mothers' Beach

On the second day of the series, we went to Mothers' Beach and the Lagoon, which is a rich estuary. An estuary is a confluence of a fresh-water river and the salty ocean, which supports all sorts of microbial, small visible and larger life, around the resulting marshes and mud-flats. We were joined by naturalist Will Husby, who in his enthusiasm helped us to find, identify, and observe some of the many life-forms, including various types of ducks, geese, swans and seabirds, scuds (aka sand-fleas), an orange sea- worm, shore-crabs, sea snails and hermit crabs, evidence of beaver-logging, and of course the many budding and sprouting plants that announce the spring!

Will explains the nature of estuaries.

Watching bird interactions.

Shore crabs!

Mt. Collins Bluffs

Shoes off!

With great thanks to Jean Jamieson and Marion and Jim Moore, who welcomed us to visit their properties, we joyfully hiked up through the forest, past a barely-blooming wild flowering currant, and out onto the arbutus-spotted bluffs of Mt. Collins. Further up, we saw the eastern side of Bowen Island, the cove, and Mothers' Beach from above, and sat between the pine trees, having a snack. Some of the kids were so enthusiastic about the warm weather and soft moss that they took off their shoes and socks to experience it more thoroughly! We walked around a bit, up top, discovering some lovely elegant mushrooms, reindeer lichen, and mysteriously ravaged-looking salal, which looked as though they'd been hit by a plague of locusts. We could not explain this! And eventually, of course, we hiked back down, discovering gorgeous trees, rock-formations, and an interesting deer-skeleton, along the way.

What a beautiful day! Whytecliff park on the left, Deep Bay and Sandy Beach in the middle, and the sailboats in the cove on the right. And between that at the foreground? The beautiful hillside we just hiked up!

Carefully exploring in and under a pine.

Arbutus on the edge.

Coming down from the mountain.

We have seen our lovely landscape!

We will go again, someday.

But for now we're coming down.

Filled with joy!

Upcoming Events: Geology of Howe Sound and Bog, Beach, Bluff

The Nature Club began the year in style with our traditional AGM potluck and an excellent presentation by UBC marine mammal expert, Professor Andrew Trite, explaining why BC Steller sea lions are thriving whilst their Alaskan relatives are in sharp decline. The answer appears to be food quality, since they thrive on high food value fish such as herring, whereas low value foods such as pollock cause them to have lower birth and infant survival rates. This suggests that the hard work of the Fish and Wildlife Club and other stream keepers associations, restoring herring spawning grounds in our area, will pay off in terms of increased sea mammal activity around Bowen and in the Sound. At the AGM we also heard about the exciting adventures planned for this year, beginning with two Nature Club events in March.

The remarkable mountain wall rising above Howe Sound

On March 17th at 7pm, Bob Turner will be discussing our local geological landscape. Living on Bowen, with its rocky shores and beaches full of pebbles, we encounter lots of geology to look at and questions to ponder. Our shoreline bedrock can be pale-coloured, or dark grey, or full of layers –what’s the difference? Smooth bedrock surfaces abound – is this the work of ancient glaciers? And how big was the glacier that carved our rock? Many pebbles that you find on a Bowen beach are different from Bowen bedrock – so where did they come from? Elsewhere, curious layers of clay contain marine fossils, yet are high above the sea. And what about Bowen Island – how old is it? Has it always been an island? Our island rocks formed in the Jurassic Era – could we find dinosaur bones here? Across the waters of Howe Sound near Squamish are the famous climbing cliffs of Stawamus Chief. Why are these granite walls so steep? Rising even higher is Mount Garibaldi, a giant volcano that erupted violently 12,000 years ago, yet it doesn’t look like a volcano at all. Could it erupt again? And asking a really big question – why do we have mountains along the coast of BC? Why isn’t our coast flat like Nova Scotia?

Our geological curiosity can range from the nature of a pebble to the origin of our coastal mountains. This talk explores the geological wonders that are all around us. So bring your questions and your local rocks. This event is free and open to non-members; contact the club for further details.

During spring break, Emily van Lidth de Jeude will be leading a (F)unschool mini camp called Bog, Beach, Bluff on March 19, 20 and 21; 2-4pm. The mini-camp is for people of all ages and will explore three different Bowen ecosystems. First, participants will hike into Fairy Fen, where there is evidence of early logging on Bowen, will look at the slow transformation of a small lake into rainforest, and find some of the deepest mud around in the bog and fen. On the second day local Naturalist Will Husby will join explorations of the estuary by Mother’s Beach and the lagoon, and help discover and identify various creatures that live there. And finally the group will hike up a bluff, starting in the forest down below and emerging to look out and see our island from above.

This activity is free, and for Nature Club members only. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Contact Emily van Lidth de Jeude at 9563 or email the Nature Club (address to the right, in the sidebar) to register for Bog, Beach, Bluff.

Bowen Nature Club AGM, membership time and speaker: Seals and Sealions of the Northern Coast

The time has finally come for getting your 2013 Bowen Nature Club membership and attending our Annual General Meeting!

Where & When:
This year it will be held on February 16th at the home of D.G. Blair. 
Email bowennatureclub at gmail dot com for address.
It is a potluck and starts at 5:30pm.

Our Speaker: Dr Andrew Trite
Dr Andrew Trite is an amazing speaker and world renown researcher on Steller sea lions.
Dr Trite has been studying North Pacific marine mammals for over 20 years and his research is primarily focused on Steller sea lions, northern fur seals, and harbor seals. His research program involves captive studies, field studies and simulation models that range from single species to whole ecosystems. His goal is to further the conservation and understanding of marine mammals; providing insights that can be used to resolve conflicts between people and marine mammals. He is involved in many projects including those measuring how the distribution of different species (walrus, fur seals, kittiwakes, murres, pollock and bivalves) are controlled by fishing, predators, food availability as well as changes in the physical environment that can act alone or in concert to alter the species ecosystems. He will provide a presentation on his research trying to understand the disappearance of Stellar sea lions from the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. He has been testing three contributing factors: 1) predation by killer whales; 2) competition with existing fisheries and 3) reproductive failure due to changes in diet. He will link this work back to his new research program trying to determine how Harbour seals in the Strait of Georgia (highest density of harbour seals found anywhere in the world) influence sockeye, chinook and coho salmon populations in BC. Dr. Trites is a Professor at UBC's Fisheries Center and Director of UBC's Marine Mammal Research Unit and the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium.

Membership Outings:
This year we have some exciting adventures planned, including an Owl Prowl, Invasive Plant Walk, Howe Sound Boat Tour, Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Family Camping Trip, a bug and insect walk, the annual Sea Creature Dive, and a hike over Collins Ridge. Also, in addition to the continuing weekly (F)unschool outings, we will be offering a 3-day (F)unschool camp during Spring Break!

Bowen Nature Club has affordable annual memberships ($22/family or $18/single), which give you emailed notices of our outings, attendance to members-only outings, BC Nature Magazine, and insurance coverage for our outings.

If you would like to purchase a membership at the AGM: Get a membership form from a director, fill in both pages, and hand it back with your payment.

If you would like to purchase a membership by mail: Email bowennaturclub at gmail dot com to ask for a membership form, print and fill in both pages once you get it, and mail it with your payment (cheque made out to Bowen Nature Club) to our director in charge of membership (you'll be given her address when the form is emailed to you, because I don't want to post it on a public forum and increase her junkmail burden!).

(F)unschool along Killarney Creek

Last week we explored the section of Killarney Creek just east of Magee Rd. and in the same general area where we previously found fighting barred owls and Signal Crayfish parts, we found even more excitement: a very gruesome dead deer, many broken freshwater mussel shells (also the remains of an otter feast, we expect), a deposit of lovely clay, some recent beaver handiwork, tiny sitka spruce saplings (one felled by a beaver), a bald eagle, and a Red Legged frog which I believe was getting ready to lay eggs. Some also smelled a musty smell that we think may have been the beavers, likely hiding out nearby. Of course we didn't see them...

The leg bone's connected to the hip bone!

 So today we went back again! Along the south side of the creek, we found more mussel shells, a spectacular upended tree, whose roots were encrusted with clay so that it looked like a cliff face from one side, a scattered old deer skeleton, whose bones could be pieced together again, some interesting fungi, cedar shells, and moss, and yet more evidence of beaver activity (and that musty smell, again!)

In addition to our continuing weekly outings, (F)unschool will be convening for a 3-day "camp" during March break, entitled Beach, Bog, and Bluffs. Maybe you can guess where we'll be going...

Sitting on the upended tree roots.

This was a very exciting fireworks show, with "fireworks" made of tiny broken twigs, which the audience is welcome to catch!

Fairy garments.

Bowen Nature Club Mushroom Walkabout

Saturday, November 10^th  at 1 pm

Meet in front of the library to car pool to our field location

Join coastal BC mushroom expert John Field, Ph.D on a walkabout to find some of Bowen’s mushrooms.  We will have a leisurely stroll of about 2 hours seeking out mushrooms that we find along the way – picking our route based on current conditions. Due to the popularity of this event and our aim to make this as interactive as possible, this is a free but members-only event limited to 20 people. Please pre-register with DG at dgbwh@telus.net.  You may also call DG (-0134) with any questions or to pre-register.

Today, forester and conservationist Everhard van Lidth de Jeude led the Nature Club (F)unschool group on a walk into Fairy Fen Nature Reserve (formerly Mystery Fen), with the intention of hanging up some signs there. They are very nice, metal-clad signs, welcoming visitors to Fairy Fen Nature Reserve, and alerting them to its status as a "Reserve", with icons declaring no cycling, no dirt-biking, and no ATV's. The kids were interested, and helped to carry the signs down, as Everhard led them through the woods toward the fen, explaining interesting natural and human processes as we witnessed their evidence along the way; pointing out various types of vegetation, etc. Then...

"What's that sound?"

"It sounds like a truck."

"A chainsaw?"

"No I think it's a quad."

We trekked into the Nature Reserve, and the sounds of the quad disappeared in the distance, but we immediately found the fresh clods of mud it had churned up, and its tracks leading away from the other "Fairy Fen Nature Reserve" signs hung by other Conservancy members.

What a learning experience for the kids!

Everhard then took us to the edge of the fen, and pointed out all sorts of interesting plant life; talked about the provenance of the fen and surrounding boggy new forest, from what was probably once a lake. He told us that somebody had come with expandable rods to measure the depth of the fen, but that he had stopped when he ran out of rods at about 8 feet. We went around the fen, to find the site of a long-ago landslide, and deep grooves in the mountainside probably caused by logs being hauled down the slope when the place was logged many decades ago.

And all the way around the fen, the kids made note of the small devastations (and litter) left by quads and bikes. Fairy Fen was made a preservation area for a reason; it's a sensitive ecosystem and a beautiful area, and it's especially suitable for helping our island's youth to understand the importance of our natural home. Today they learned about its fragility and its need for protection.